Techniques that Engage Students

Chapter 4. 4 Ms
To enhance lesson plans teachers can use the 4 Ms technique.
This technique encompasses setting appropriate objectives. The 4 Ms
are: Manageable, Measurable, Made First, and Most Important. These
will promote effectiveness and student engagement. Manageable is
providing content in sizable doses that all students will be able to
master in a set time. Measurable pertains to writing objectives so that
the path to achieving success in an objective can be measured. Made
first reminds on that the objective should be designed to guide the
activity. Most important reminds one that the objective should focus on
what it is important.

Chapter 7, Building Ratio through Questioning: Wait Time

Clip 19. Teacher Yasmin Vargas, Grade 1
1. How many seconds does Ms. Vargas wait? About how
many hands ultimately go up?
a. She waits about 13 seconds. About 70% of the students
raised their hands
2. What pattern do you see in how many hands are up at
each point? How does that pattern relate to what Ms.
Vargas is saying in her Wait Time Narrative?
a. In the first phase she is noting that the first engaged group
of students are thinkers. During her counting intervals
more students become thinkers.
3. Is Ms. Vargas encouraging group effort? How?
a. Yes, She is encouraging engagement by telling her
students to partake in discussion with their peers.
Clip 20: Katie Bellucci, Grade 5
1. How many seconds does Ms. Bellucci wait?
a. She waits 13 seconds
2. What cueing, if any, does Ms. Bellucci provide in her Wait
Time narrative?
a. She is recognizing the few hands that are being raised, but
wants more students to raise their hands (become engaged).
2. What else is she accomplishing during her Wait Time?
a. She is providing encouragement. And She is able to
provide individual attention by answering questions while
scanning the classroom (Being Seen).
Clip 21: Teacher Christine Ranney, Grade 8
1. How many seconds does Ms. Ranney wait? What pattern
do you see in how many hands go up as the Wait Time
and her narrative continue? How do you explain the
pattern?
a. She waits 31 seconds for responses to a more complex
question, and shorter wait time for less complex questions.
Throughout her wait time she is continually providing
encouragement phrases, and also acknowledging the
students who raise their hands.
2. What additional information or cueing does she supply in
her narrative?

a. She provides additional information with her responses and

constant talking. The additional information included the
definition.
3. What other champion techniques is she using that
support or build on what she accomplishes through her
Wait Time and its narrative?
a. The Champion Teacher technique Being Seen under high
behavioral expectations is being used.

Chapter 8: Building Ratio through Writing

Choose three of the seven virtues whose value grabs you most
strongly. For each, give your best concrete example of how
adding Everybody Writes would benefit a specific
class activity you've been thinking about in pursuit of a major
lesson objective. (You may find ideas in Circulate, Check for
Understanding, Take a Stand, and Cold Call.)
1. Allows a focused point of discussion. During a history class
covering a previous reading assignment a teacher may provide a
student with a writing prompt or question before engaging in
class discussion. Students are comfortable reflecting their ideas
on paper rather than out loud. By having the students build
confidence via writing prompts, and reading over their shoulder
during the process provides the teacher with a positive. The
positive being the opportunity to choose a focus point for
discussion that students are interested and comfortable with
discussing.
2. Supplies Direction. A history teacher may began the class by
asking the students to write what they thought about last nights
reading and what where some key points. This method may lead
way to a wide variety of topics and points. This will be
counterproductive. Providing them with questions and prompts
will give them direction and allow the teacher to assess them.
3. Upgrade Student Memory. Writing enhances memory. Writing
promotes retention. Students remember twice as much of what
they are learning by writing it down. For example, discussing a
historical topic that students deem irrelevant will not be grasped

well by the students Having them write a paper over will help
with their retention.

Ways to Initiate Everybody Writes

The following are various ways and means of launching an
Everybody Writes. In the empty left column, check any idea
you haven't or have rarely tried but that could be appropriate
to your classroom. In the empty right column, note a
discussion activity that could follow from the work done in that
Everybody Writes activity. For example, an excellent brief bit
of student writing on a formatted reflections page in one
class session could become the basis for some Do Now writing
for the entire class at the outset of the next session.

Writing
on a formatted
reflections page that is
sometimes turned in at the
end of class

Possible Activity
After reading an assigned
reading students may reflect
how the historical content
covered in the back has
impacted todays society.

on a piece of scratch
paper
in response to teachergenerated questions written
on the board or overhead
in response to studentgenerated, teacher-vetted
questions
in response to a question
framed verbally by the
teacher at the moment its
assigned
a free-write in response
to something the teacher just
read aloud
a free-write in response
Students write how the
to something students just
personally feel about the
read
subject/matter
in response to one question
in response to a series of
three or four questions

X
X

X
X

about a question the

student has selected from
several choices
in a Response Journal
that the teacher rarely sees
on sticky notes to paste
into the book the student is
reading
for twenty seconds until
the timer goes off
until I give you the signal
to stop
for three to five minutes
in complete sentences
with no format
expectations
to express ones opinion
on a matter
to describe the opinion of
someone else
to assemble evidence to
support one of two
contrasting opinions
in a portion of a packet for
which students will be graded

Students write about the daily

readings
Facts in a history book that
you would like to further
research and discuss on a
mid-term or final paper

Students are to discuss why

they think the civil war was
fought
Students chose a historical
figure who they think will
have something to say about
todays race issues.